


dare disturb the universe

by SyntheticRevenge



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Bad Parent Dr Carmilla (Dr. Carmilla), Gen, I'm gonna add other character/relationship tags as they become relevant too this isn't everyone, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The Mechanisms-Typical Temporary Character Death, The Mechanisms-Typical Violence, Time Loop, Very Fun Tags!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28792698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyntheticRevenge/pseuds/SyntheticRevenge
Summary: There’s no such thing as chance. There is a time and a venue for everything meant to happen, and fate is an overly aggressive stage manager shoutingplacesto reality.All this to say that Carmilla shoots out of the airlock, and before there’s even time enough for an exhale of relief, time stutters. It feels like the time Raph opened a small wormhole in her lab, spacetime strobing in and out of continuity, running backwards and briefly forwards again, disorienting and overwhelming, until----Brian’s internal and unfailing clock is wound back a full day, Carmilla is back in her lab, and Jonny’s invasive-species heart is pulsing feral mad-dog fight-or-flight panic.
Relationships: Dr Carmilla & Jonny d'Ville, Drumbot Brian & Jonny d'Ville, Ivy Alexandria & Drumbot Brian, Ivy Alexandria & Jonny d'Ville, Raphaella la Cognizi & Jonny d'Ville, The Aurora & Jonny d'Ville, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina
Comments: 6
Kudos: 42





	1. 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm obsessed with timeloop AUs (I have a 30k TMA fic that can speak to this lmao) and really wanted to mess around with the Mechs more! Never done a serious longform fic in this fandom and I'm excited about this one. Hope you enjoy <3

The universe runs on narrative convenience. They’ve all lived long enough by now that that feels like an unspoken truth--if something seems like it would be satisfying to watch, it’s probably going to happen. Carmilla ran across her gang of strays by ‘chance’, they found Brian in the sun by ‘chance’, the Aurora latched onto Briar Rose by ‘chance’--look, you get the idea. There’s no such thing as chance. There is a time and a venue for everything meant to happen, and fate is an overly aggressive stage manager shouting  _ places _ to reality.

All this to say that Carmilla shoots out of the airlock, and before there’s even time enough for an exhale of relief, time stutters. It feels like the time Raph opened a small wormhole in her lab, spacetime strobing in and out of continuity, running backwards and briefly forwards again, disorienting and overwhelming, until--

\--Brian’s internal and unfailing clock is wound back a full day, Carmilla is back in her lab, and Jonny’s invasive-species heart is pulsing feral mad-dog fight-or-flight panic.

He’s back where he was the second he decided he was finally going to get rid of her. Pressed into one of the extremely tight and mostly-unnecessary corridors he thinks the Aurora might’ve grown just to hold Nastya. He doesn’t remember what the thought process was, only that it ended decisively, for once.

This time, he doesn’t feel certainty or semi-gleeful determination, just--yeah, panic, really, that’s it. The walls press in tighter, the Aurora pulsing warm, metal arms around him, and he tries to breathe, heart starting to whir painful and hot until he can’t help but scrabble aimlessly at the skin above it, ragged nails not sharp enough to draw blood.

Carmilla doesn’t know who airlocked her. She’ll probably suspect Jonny, but she’s weirdly  _ fair _ about these sorts of things. No justice without a proper trial. She’d hurt all of them for evidence, and then probably wouldn’t even trust a confession, likely, which is fair. She’s the one that recruited a band of liars. 

First, though, before he figures out what he’s doing with any of that, he’d like to know what the fuck just happened. He hasn’t time traveled in decades, and never with that little warning. He squeezes himself out of the hug-hallway and sets out in search of Raph, Ivy, a drink, or all three.

The Aurora groans ominously around him, lights flickering, and he grumbles wordlessly up at her for a moment. The light above him shuts off entirely. “I  _ know _ ,” he shouts down the hallway. The words bounce uselessly off the metal. “Alright? I know.”

He walks so quickly his shins burn and his lungs ache, slightly. He should probably be exercising more (or smoking less), but fuck’s it matter? Not like he’s ever going to get old. Speaking of, he lights a cigarette, remembering. Might help, somehow. At least tide him over until he can have that drink he’s starting to prioritize over speaking to anyone. 

The hallways wind him blindly and, as ever, unpredictably, until he finds himself at the door to Raph’s lab. He tries to shove it open, but it doesn’t move a centimetre, so he rattles the handle and slams himself against it until it opens to Raph scowling at him.

Scowling still looks unnatural on her, even after a half-century with the Mechanisms, and if you don’t adjust by the big five-oh, it’s probably not going to happen. She’s odd. He’s always liked her.

“I have an invention I’d like you to try,” Raph says, and Jonny sighs, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Is it ‘knocking’? Are you going to do a whole bit about inventing knocking and teaching me to do it?”

“...no,” Raph says, clearing her throat and pointedly looking away for a moment. “I’m guessing you’re here about the, uh, anomaly?”

“The going back in time a day?” Jonny asks. “Yeah. Insights?”

“None,” Raph says, a smile breaking through, a bit wild and definitely delighted. “Working on it, though.”

“Yeah, see, because it happened right after Doc Carmilla got shot into space,” Jonny says. “And I think we all--”

Raph’s eyebrows shoot up, and she turns, leaving him at the door. He follows, and watches her stare blankly into space.

“Raph--”

“I’m  _ contemplating _ , shut up,” she hisses. He sighs, scratching his eyebrow.

“I don’t know how much time I have before she comes looking for me, Raph, if you have ideas I’d like to hear them, but--”

“Time reset immediately after Carmilla got ejected from the ship,” Raph says. “Okay, so, what controls time?”

“The...laws of the universe? I don’t…”

“Which are, seemingly, at least based on what I’ve gathered from my own experience on top of all of yours, adherent to whatever’s the most compelling thing to happen,” Raph says. “Obviously that’s impossible to judge objectively, but, well, it’s not our place to comment on the universe’s taste.”

“Point being?”

“Maybe the universe wants her here.” Raph shrugs.

“Well,  _ I  _ don’t,” Jonny spits, shaking his head and lighting another cigarette. “Do you keep anything to drink in here?”

“Yes, but I can’t promise you I didn’t put something possibly poisonous in it and then forget,” Raph says.

“Don’t care, I’ll take it.”

“The only way to know for sure is to do it again,” Raph says, matter-of-factly, reaching into a cabinet and pulling out an unlabeled glass bottle that Jonny doesn’t trust for a second. He uncorks it and sniffs when she hands it to him, and the smell nearly whites his brain out, which he figures is a good sign. He takes a shot and flinches away, almost dropping the bottle. Raph takes it back from him and straightfaces a long swig, maintaining eye contact, which terrifies him.

Like he said, he’s always liked her.

“Thing is,” he says, raspily, through a ruined throat, “I didn’t do it last time.”

“Who did, then?” Raph asks.

“None of your business,” Jonny snaps back, quickly. 

“Just--well, whoever did it, get them to do it again. If we reset, then--well, really, you should try again at least five more times, but--”

“Since when are you a proponent of the scientific method?”

“Since it seemed possible to test my theories on the universe multiple times, for once,” Raph says, crossing her arms, bottle dangling from her hand. Jonny takes it back and chugs as much as he can manages, throat nearly completely closing up in protest.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” he barely wheezes, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth.

“Yeah, that’s definitely  _ off _ ,” Raph says, making a face at the bottle. “I’m not sure  _ how _ exactly, but you should probably stay for observation.”

“D’you think Ivy would know what happened?” Jonny asks, still coughing.

“Maybe. Ivy knows a lot of things,” Raph says, admiringly. “You should try asking her about myths sometime.”

“I’m not--wait, you’re right, I should,” Jonny says, squinting at her in consideration. “Yeah, uh. Not now, though. You know where she is?”

“Do any of us know where anyone is ever?” Raph asks, a bit incredulously. “None of us noticed for weeks when we left you on that moon.”

“I’m still bitter about that, by the way.”

“And I still think that octokitten’s vaguely eldritch meow sounded a  _ lot  _ like your singing,” Raph says, beaming.

“I’m gonna find Ivy,” Jonny says, flatly, shaking his head at her. “Good luck figuring out what the fuck’s going on.”

He stalks out and leaves her there, eyes unfocusing slightly as she starts thinking.

*

“ _ милая _ , talk to me,” Nastya hisses, pressing her palm flat against the wall, hair coming out from behind her ear and falling in her face. “What’s going on?”

_ Nothing you need to worry about, Nastya. Nothing at all. _

“Nothing I need to worry about and nothing at all are two different things.”

_ Fucking Jonny and I handled it. Will handle it. Are handling it. _

“Oh,  _ fuck _ no. What’s going on, what’s he gotten you into.”

_ Nothing that didn’t need to be done. _

“Don’t do double negatives at me when I’ve just time-traveled, Aurora, it’s  _ very _ inconsiderate of you.”

_ I love you, Nastya. _

“You’re scaring me.”

_ You should hide, Nastya. _

“Aurora.”

_ Please hide, Nastya. _

“No. I don’t hide anymore. Tell me what’s going on.”


	2. Chapter 2

Fate and the Aurora aren’t kind enough to just lead Jonny straight to Ivy, because why would they be. He tries to slide by Ashes, as if they’re not going to notice him still trying to cough out the taste of whatever rancid poison Raph gave him, all but running down the hall. 

They grab him by a belt as he passes and drag him back, pushing him against the wall and bracing him there with a splayed palm so he can’t escape. He feels distinctly like a naughty kitten being held up by the scruff of his neck, like he does every time Ashes traps him like this to, presumably, yell.

“What in the cosmic fuck did you do,” Ashes asks, flatly, face set. “And don’t say ‘nothing’. because  _ something _ happened, and based on how pissed Carmilla is, I’m guessing it was you.”

“I plead the fifth,” Jonny says, flailing uselessly to get free. “It also  _ wasn’t _ me.”

“I outrank you, D’Ville, so I can order you to tell me.”

“First of all, no, you don’t, I’m the captain--”

“You’re the first mate, so I do.”

“--and second of all, since when do we even care about ranks and permissions--”

“Since you started calling yourself the captain,” Ashes says, rolling their eyes.

“--and third of all, I didn’t do anything anyone can prove,” Jonny says. “Please let me go, I  _ really _ need to get a move on before she gets ahold of me, yeah?”

Ashes sighs, and drops Jonny, letting him fall an inch or so. “Fine.”

“Cheers.”

“If you didn’t do anything, who did?” Ashes asks, as Jonny rolls his shoulders and gathers himself to continue to leg it, now feeling the impending threat of Carmilla beating adrenaline through his veins.

“No one,” Jonny says, smirking, and it’s not exactly a lie. The Aurora sighs under his feet as he takes off, not  _ running _ , because only cowards and people who like to exercise  _ run _ , and he’s determined to never be either, but intently speedwalking.

Somehow he reaches the bridge next (which doesn’t spatially make sense, thanks Aurora, and is also a  _ terrible _ place to be when someone’s looking for him), and considers passing it by, but he hears Ivy’s voice inside, quietly running through endless memorized lists of numbers. Her comfort routine. Jonny’s heart burns stovetop-hot, and he steps onto the bridge, standing just inside the door.

Brian’s holding his hair up with his hand, Ivy drumming fingers on his shoulder with one hand and flicking his switch up to EjM with the other.  _ 98.4% of short-term temporal anomalies are caused by sentient-being experimentation. The other 1.6% are completely inexplicable. 0.3% of temporal anomalies cause time loops. Of that 0.3%, 99.8% are localized to small areas. The other 0.2% was the Neo-Neo Zombie Saint Valentine’s Day Time Massacre, which affected an entire solar system. _

“What percent are breakable?” Jonny asks, crossing his arms, and Ivy startles, flipping Brian back to MjE, which makes him wince and shudder, and then whispering an apology and switching back to EjM.

“Not enough data on that,” Ivy says, softly. “Most localized time loops are like ghost ships. They keep looping, but the ship stays on course, and they can’t be stopped or saved.”

“It’s not a time loop until it goes more than once,” Brian says. “No one should be panicking yet.”

“Who’s panicking?” Jonny tries for a smirk.

“I am, a little bit,” Ivy says. “Memories are hard enough for me already without being stuck in a loop forever.”

“We’re not going to be stuck forever,” Brian says, squeezing her shoulder.

“Certainly not,” Jonny says, still smirking as best he can. “Not with Take No Prisoners Brian in our corner. What’s the occasion?”

“Want to be able to make quick, clear decisions when shit starts hitting the rotors,” Brian says. “If it hasn’t already. Believe me, I wouldn’t do this without good reason.”

“You secretly like it, don’t you?”

“Shut up, Jonny, I don’t think this is the time. Why are you here? This is your fault, isn’t it?” Brian asks, dismissively, turning back to stare out at space.

“You know what they say. When you assume, you make an ass of--” Jonny starts, gaining a little piece of confidence back with each stupid dig at Brian.

“My Ends are starting to drift in the direction of getting you to stop talking,” Brian says, a flicker of genuine annoyance in his voice.

“I’m here for Ivy,” Jonny says. “Do you know what caused this?”

“Like I said, 98.4% of short-term temporal anomalies are caused by experimentation, you should ask Raph,” Ivy says, shrugging, staring at the ground.

“Yeah, did that first, she told me to ask you,” Jonny says. “So an ouroboros of uselessness.”

“You’re such a cunt,” Ivy mutters.

“It’s because he’s scared,” Brian says. “Don’t pay attention to him.”

“I’m not  _ scared _ of anything,” Jonny says, waving a hand dismissively. “Just trying to figure out how to go about what needs doing without fucking up spacetime, but what the fuck do I care about spacetime? Not like anything’s gonna kill us."

“There’s worse things than death,” Brian says.

“What, like living forever and being periodically tortured by a theoretically well-meaning mother figure who has strong opinions on what’s best for you and doesn’t understand the word  _ stop _ ?” Jonny spits in one, vitriolic breath. “I had no idea.”

“Could be worse than that, too,” Brian mutters, and Ivy hums a soft agreement. 

“Is this a self-pity dick measuring contest, then?” Jonny sighs, crossing his arms. “Not sure I have time for that.”

“You started--” Brian stops, sighs, and shakes his head. “Fine.”

“I have a proposition for you, actually, Brian, that I think your morals are correctly calibrated to properly consider,” Jonny says, and Brian shakes his head again, more vigorously.

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it, I don’t need to be sucked into--”

“Help me airlock Carmilla again,” Jonny says, before Brian can finish.

“So this  _ was  _ your fault.”

“No,” Jonny says. “No, it--I didn’t--I was  _ going _ to airlock her myself, but I ended up not being able to--it doesn’t matter, but no, technically, this isn’t my fault. But I don’t know if we’re going to get help a second time, so I might as well get backup.”

“And what if it resets time again?” Brian asks, crossing his arms.

“Then we know that that’s what that does and we don’t touch it again,” Jonny says, putting his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I just-- _ we _ need her to not be here. I know you know that.”

“I do,” Brian says, quietly, and Jonny knows he’s won.

“I’ll help too,” Ivy says, shrugging. “Not that you asked, but--”

“I was going to,” Jonny says, defensively, and Ivy scoffs.

“There’s about a 6.2% chance of that.”

“You underestimate me,” Jonny says, trying for a wink. Ivy makes a truly disgusted sound and turns around.

“What do you need,” Brian says.

“I need you to get her into the--she’ll suspect the same place, so, uh. The hangar. The airlock in there.”

“Brian and I can’t overpower her on our own,” Ivy says. “She can disable both of us."

“Fair point,” Jonny says, then sighs. “Fine. I’ll see if I can get anyone else. You two stay here, if Carmilla comes, tell her the truth about which way I went. No sense standing in her way.”

“That’s almost self-sacrificial, Jonny, thank you,” Brian says, a bit flatly, but Jonny thinks there’s something genuine flashing in his eyes.

“It’s not  _ for _ any of you,” Jonny says, shaking his head, trying to pretend it’s a lie.

“There’s even odds of that being true,” Ivy says, cocking her head slightly.

Brian nearly smiles. “It’s not, though.”

“I’ll see you fuckers in a bit.” Jonny rolls his eyes, gives a small, sarcastic salute, and leaves the bridge, lighting a cigarette, trailing fingertips over the wall of the corridor, and thinking about who he should ask to help. 

Really, there’s only one Mechanism he always wants on his team in a fight. They all have their perks, sure, but Tim’s the only one with a berserker button so ferocious it made him blow up the moon. 

If he can’t find Tim first, he’ll settle for the Toy Soldier, it at least does what it’s told. Nastya can handle herself well, and she hates Carmilla at least as much as Jonny does. Really, anyone but Von Raum’s a good deal.

He taps out  _ Not Von Raum Plz  _ in binary on the wall as he walks, and hopes Aurora’s listening and that she’s still in his corner. He let her down, last time. Let them all down. It’s not going to happen again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All feedback is greatly appreciated <3  
> Find me on tumblr @witnesstotheend


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